The preceding brief account covered when and by whom Britain was first inhabited; for how long it remained free; its cities and their founders; how many of its kings ruled in complete freedom and how many as tyrants; which of them were distinguished and renowned for their valour; and what seems to me unique and distinctive in what Britannicus has to say.

I have investigated whether Pompeius Trogus includes anything on these matters because he has tackled the histories of virtually the whole of the world with the boldness of Hercules, though with the pen, not the club. I also read over Suetonius Tranquillus because he, in writing about the lives of the Caesars, notes which of them went to Britain. I went on to Eutropius because he has a great deal to recount about the Romans and the Britons. Nor did I omit Paulus Orosius, for he, dividing the world up into three parts, describes what the Romans achieved in each of these parts and explains in a historically accurate manner how they subjugated Britain.

When I had gone through nearly all the sources, I found nothing in their works about the kings I have discussed above. Indeed, neither Gildas, with his knowledge of the Britons, nor Bede in his histories, make any reference to such men in their writings although they, above all others, lament the misfortune of the Britons. Thus, until the time of Julius Caesar, a complete silence is maintained in all these works in relation to the above-mentioned British kings.

Sequens uero particula declarabit quomodo per Gaium Iulium Caesarem subiugata et a primitiua libertate deiecta, Romanis quidem aliquanto tempore facta est tributaria, sed tamen usque Lucium, primum eorum regem Christianum, Britannicis regibus paruit subdita, sicut non solum Britonum sed etiam Romanorum et Anglorum ceterorumque in sequentibus testatur historia.

Explicit prologus. Incipit secunda particula.

Igitur defuncto Lud et in urbe Trinouantum iuxta portam, quae de nomine suo Ludesiata dicta est, est sepulto, regnauit Cassibellaunus frater eius pro eo. In diebus illis Iulius Caesar subiugata Gallia uenit ad litus Ruthenorum, ubi parato nauigio prosperis uentis Britanniam aduectus, in hostium Tamensis fluminis cum exercitu applicuit. Anno ab urbe Romae condita sescentesimo nonagesimo tertio ante incarnationis tempus Dominicae anno sexagesimo. Cui cum exercitu suo Cassibellaunus occurrens, pugnam iniit, concurrentibus et utrinque cateruis, irruit Nennius, frater regis, in Caesarem.